September 01, 2008

Lyceum Day

October 19, 1811

Once in the early 1980s, I by chance found myself at a school holding an elaborate ceremony in honor of October 19 – the anniversary of the opening of the Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo. It was an impressive affair – posters hung throughout the school reminding everyone, “Don’t Forget, Today is Lyceum Day!” In the assembly hall, pupils and alumni recited Pushkin’s poetry, and the packed hall listened with rapt attention. The ceremony concluded with everyone singing a song by Yuly Kim.

As we walk the road of life,

Meeting others at the crossroads,

You’re our friend and our instructor,

Splendid Pushkin lyceum.

Within your hallowed halls

One can learn a thing or two.

How to have a raucous time,

Selfless trust,

Thought free and sublime

All those assembled rose to their feet and joined in.

What was it that compelled the upperclassmen and alumni, already in their twenties, to memorize lines and lines of text, to find the time for lengthy rehearsals, and to sew themselves 19th century costumes? Of course, it might be explained by the simple desire to appear on stage in front of one’s friends. But, if they had been offered the opportunity to participate in an evening commemorating the anniversary of Lenin’s birth or the October Revolution, there likely would not have been as many interested participants or as big an audience.

Pushkin has always been, and remains, the point of departure from which any venture into the world of Russian culture begins. He is something all Russians have in common – from the academically challenged hooligan just barely taking in the teacher’s lesson through his somnolent boredom, to the intellectual linguist continuing to discover new and remarkable depths in the poet’s brilliant verse. And even if you’ve gone decades without cracking open a volume of Pushkin’s work (and there is barely a household in Russia lacking such volumes), simply by virtue of the fact that you live in Russia, you will come into constant contact with the mythology of Pushkin. This mythology has many components. Among the most important are: Pushkin and his lovers, Pushkin and his wife, his duel and death, and, of course, one of the most appealing components of the mythology – Pushkin’s childhood.

Pushkin’s parents managed to enroll their 12-year-old son in the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum when it first opened, on October 19, 1811. Tsar Alexander I dreamed of providing a higher education that would enable graduates to see Russian life in new ways and to support the reforms he was planning. He needed an enlightened elite. This is why the new school was called a lyceum – after the institution where Aristotle had studied in Athens. And this is why it was housed in the park of the tsar’s favorite palace outside St. Petersburg, so that the monarch could take it “under his wing.” Alexander I himself, along with his closest associates, attended the Lyceum’s opening. The finest teachers had been invited to join the faculty.

Such was the beginning of life in the school from which so many prominent statesmen, diplomats, and scholars graduated. Yet what really gave it its reputation was its very first graduating class, which gave Russia not only Pushkin, but several other outstanding poets, several revolutionaries, and a large number of exceptional people.

Several years later, one of Pushkin’s classmates wrote some angry memoirs about the Lyceum. According to him, the instruction was poor, the lack of discipline was abominable, and the boys were up to constant mischief, at times seriously so. In other words, there was not much to admire. And in reality, Pushkin and his friends were not fond of plodding through school books, and those who studied assiduously were the brunt of teasing and mockery.

What they did like to do was run around the huge park in Tsarskoye Selo, attract the attention of the ladies-in-waiting, sneak a few drinks at night – in short, the sorts of things that appeal to all boys their age. And most of them did have fond memories of their school, and for the rest of their lives they got together on the anniversary of the Lyceum’s opening – October 19. Almost every year, Pushkin wrote a poem on the occasion of the Lyceum anniversary. As a result, this day has become a symbol of friendship through thick and thin.

When one of Pushkin’s classmates who had been involved in the 1825 Decembrist revolt, Ivan Pushchin, was awaiting arrest, he was visited by another classmate, Alexander Gorchakov, who had been one of the serious, well-behaved students. Even though he had never been close with Pushchin, he sought him out and took incriminating papers from him to hide in his own home, thereby risking his career. Apparently, the bonds of Lyceum friendship were important even to a bookworm-careerist who over the coming decades would reach the post of chancellor of the Russian Empire.

Almost everyone in Russia knows the significance of October 19. Few were the recitation contests where some schoolchild did not joyously declaim Pushkin’s famous line, Нам целый мир – чужбина, отечество нам Царское Село (For us, the world is an alien place, our fatherland is Tsarskoye Selo), ignoring the fact that feeling out of place everywhere but one tiny town is nothing to get excited about.

Today, crowds of tourists besiege the Lyceum building in Tsarskoye Selo to steal a look at the tiny rooms that were never warmed above 17º Celsius (63º Fahrenheit). Here the boys who would later bring renown to their school slept on narrow little beds.

In Soviet times, there was something special and incongruous about celebrations of the anniversary of the Lyceum. It was an opportunity for subtle protest. We were marking not the official holiday, but our own. Even if it was permitted, it still did not quite fit the Soviet ideological mold. What we were celebrating was Pushkin, and the idea of friendship that meant so much to these people, that forced them to forget, even as adults, their human, political, and ideological differences.

The 19th is dangerously close to another holiday that was celebrated with great fanfare throughout the Soviet Union – October 29, the date of the founding of the Komsomol. On that day, the country’s leadership gave long-winded, yawn-provoking speeches to the nation’s youth at solemn meetings.

The school where I came to work in 1986 always tried to breathe life into the pretentious October 29 celebration and give it some human content. Yet, despite the sincere efforts of the organizers, with perestroika this became increasingly difficult.

Around this same time, October 19 had begun to make a comeback. The holiday took on new meaning for schools like ours since – after a 1988 liberalization of education in the USSR that no longer required schools to be uniform – we had become a gymnasium. Of course, gymnasiums and lyceums were not exactly the same things, but nobody really understood the difference between them. Yet everyone did understand that this was something different from the traditional Soviet school. October 19 became our day.

We staged readings and other performances based on Pushkin’s life and works and later made the 19th a special day to “swear in” the gymnasium students On October 19, the younger children were told about the school’s history and led through “stations” devoted to different subjects, where they were given humorous and entertaining tasks. The older children were taken on outings. At one point, we managed to arrange trips to an estate outside Moscow where Pushkin spent time. The magnificent 19th century décor had been preserved, and our girls sewed themselves ball gowns to fit the mood. We read poetry and tried to dance as they did in Pushkin’s day.

The dancing was not much of a success. The boys were too timid to ask their classmates, now transformed into grand, 19th century ladies, to dance. Nevertheless, the outings to the estate, the walks through the park, the poetry, the music – all this was long remembered. And the gradual disappearance of the October 29 celebration was barely noticed and unlamented. Then one year our estate was suddenly no longer available – the space had been occupied by a suburban lyceum that was also celebrating October 19. We now had competition, or rather kindred spirits.

Today, October 19 is the official day of the lyceum student – or of the gymnasium student, as our school would have it. Many schools celebrate it and the media covers it, which of course makes it feel a bit too official. But what is wonderful about Pushkin is that he is so hard to spoil. His playful humor and vitality always triumph over dull solemnity.

Many current students do not quite understand what all the fuss is about. “Why do we celebrate this day on October 19? What happened on that day?” This could never have happened in Soviet times, when everyone knew about everything having to do with Pushkin. But even if Lyceum Day has turned into a simple celebration of schoolchildren, it still embodies the memory of Pushkin and his friends, boys who were later scattered to the winds. Some went into exile, some traveled the world, some became prominent statesmen. One, a great poet, at the dawn of his career proclaimed, “For us, the world is an alien place, our fatherland is Tsarskoye Selo.”

September 01, 2008

Lyceum Day

See Also

Uchites! Russian Language Learning

About Us

Latest Posts

Useful Links

Our Contacts